Plane Good Sense

A big part of what makes polite society function properly is social contracts. You know, those little things which aren't laws and occasionally everyone has the sinking suspicion are stupid, but we adhere to them anyway because fighting over them would create more problems than eliminating them would solve. A perfect example of this is returning your shopping carts to the little collection area after you load your car. It's technically not a law, but it is something most people just do because it is better than clogging parking spots or letting their cart roll into another person's car and denting it. Another example of a social contract is the premise that people must turn off their cellphones while flying. I think we have all had the sneaking suspicion that this long-standing policy is no longer necessary, but 98% of the population is willing to turn off their phones without complaint because arguing with the stewardesses isn't going to change the policy (common theme on this blog: complaints directed at anyone who can't do anything to affect change is a waste of everyone's time). All you are going to do is delay the flight and annoy everyone sitting around you. Plus, turning off your cellphone for a few hours seems like a small inconvenience in exchange for being flown across the country. So it certainly caught my eye when I saw a story this afternoon which said the FAA is considering lifting that ban and allowing cellphone usage on planes.

I think we all knew this day was coming. Modern airplanes are miracles of science and engineering and the idea that we were honestly supposed to believe they could be rendered useless by something I bought from a high school kid working behind the counter at Best Buy was insane. After all, the best technology starts out at the highest corporate level and eventually trickle down to the masses, not the other way around. Of course the airlines have no one to blame for this development but themselves because as soon as they started offering wi-fi on planes for tablets and laptops, the idea of not being able to use a cellphone looked even more absurd. You can't allow people to start using more sophisticated electronics and still claim a phone creates a safety issue. Still, the timing of this story surprised me because even though we may have all suspected the logic was flawed, I didn't see any big uprising to change the policy. It was weird, but we all were just living with it. That is why I have the feeling this shift has a more to do with sluggish sales than technology catching up to usage. Even though some people still need to travel to work, thanks to things like Skype and other webcam-based software conference calling software air travel is steadily more about personal use than business, so airlines needed to come up with some way to attract consumers. I think they finally realized they could only make the seats so comfortable before they had to do something about the in-flight entertainment.

Like a lot of people, I actually think this could be a great thing for air travel. People are more attached to their electronics than ever and expecting them to turn their phones off for hours at a time was becoming unrealistic. (Even the PGA Tour allows you to bring phones onto the course now and we all know how touchy golfers get about noise.) Currently most people's only options during flight time are to read, watch a terrible movie or get drunk. Giving the public the option of entertaining themselves by calling or texting friends should make the entire experience more pleasant for everyone involved. If you have ever been on a train which allows people to use their phones and then a plane which doesn't you can actually feel a palpable difference. I honestly believe that allowing people to stick their noses into their phones will generally calm everyone down, but especially little kids who have been brought up in a world in which they have been plugged in since they minute they were born. Those kids don't have any idea how to sit quietly and frankly, it drives everyone not related to them a little crazy. Playing Angry Birds for hours on end may rot your brain, but that seems like a long-term problem and in the short-term I just want Junior to shut up and stop kicking the back of my seat until we land.

The only major flaw I see about this idea is the fact that even though cellphones have been around for the better part of two decades, a lot of people still have not mastered the concept of 'public volume'. There is nothing more obnoxious than people talking on their phones loud enough for everyone to feel like part of their conversation, as if it is their train and the rest of us are lucky enough to have hitched a ride. I have no ability to quantify it with actual facts, but I have this sneaking suspicion someone being loud on a cellphone will be 10 times more annoying when they are doing it on an airplane versus on a bus. Perhaps a trial run of only allowing people to text would be a good way to start. Either way, I am pretty sure that in four or five years we're going to look at old movies where everyone is being asked to turn off their phones with the same nostalgic eyes we currently use when an old movie pops on and people are smoking on a plane - it just looks bizarre to think people were ever allowed to do that. But, keep one thing in mind: no matter how many electronic devices you are allowed to turn on, never forget to return your tray to its full and upright position as the plane starts its landing. That is one rule which will never go away.